THE ROTARY CLUB OF RUTHERGLEN NEWS.
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On Thursday 3rd July 2008 President Bill McIntosh had the pleasure of presenting
to incoming President Elect Andy Cattanach his chain of office.
On Thursday 26th June 2008 President Ian Wilson handed over the Presidential Chain of Office to Bill McIntosh.
(Awaiting photo from John Lloyd)
On Thursday 19th June 2008 President Ian Wilson had the great pleasure of inducting John Paton into membership of our Club.
John's contact details can be found in the members section of this Web Site.
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ROTARY RAISES OVER £3,000 TO HELP CONTINUE BATTLE with POLIO.
In October last year on National Polio Day the members of Rutherglen Rotary Club promised to hold a sponsored walk
in the springtime
to raise funds to continue Rotary International's commitment to help eradicate
polio from the world.
This promised walk took place on Saturday the 17th May 2008 around the Falkirk
Wheel pathways and canal banks.
Members and
friends walked more than the intended total of 103 miles which was a mile for
each year of Rotary’s
existence worldwide.
Ian Wilson, the Club President said "my thanks go to the members and friends who took part in this fundraiser.
We even had one of the walker’s dog,
a golden retriever called Sam walking with us for quite a bit of sponsorship.
The weather was damp to begin with but soon dried out and we had a great day and
hopefully the money raised
in this venture and by other Rotary
Clubs will soon mean that the vaccine can reach every part of our world and
polio
will be defeated for everyone".
Major gains have been made in the global fight against Polio:
In the 1980s, the disease infected 1000 children every day in 125 countries.
Today, Polio cases have declined by 99%,
with fewer than two thousand case reported in 2006. Indeed that figure is still improving as only just over 400 cases
have been diagnosed so far this year.
Two billion children have been immunized, five million have been spared
disability, and over 250,000 deaths from Polio
have been prevented. There are now
only 4 remaining endemic countries Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan.
Since Rotary International, launched Polio Plus in 1985 which was the first and
largest internationally coordinated private
sector support of a public health initiative Rotary Clubs across the world have raised over 300 million dollars
to help finance the battle.
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At our regular meeting on Thursday 28th February
our guests were the foreign students shown below.
This annual and very enjoyable feature of our Rotary Calendar, run by our International Service Committee, gives us the opportunity to show these visitors to our country, real Scottish hospitality.
The students are all studying various subjects at Glasgow Universities courtesy of the British Council and are mostly post graduate students who will be future persons of influence in their home countries.
This further educational programme has been found to be an ideal way to foster good relations between Britain and these mostly Commonwealth countries.
As an International organisation Rotary is most anxious to help develop mutual understanding between nations and we find the opportunity of hosting these evenings both stimulating and enjoyable.
On Friday 22nd February we held our Charity Race Night. As can be seen from the photos below this was a most enjoyable occasion,
Thanks to the sponsorship from the above and the support of those attending we estimate that we have raised over £2000 for this charity.
On 17th February at the Eastwood theatre, a team consisting of President Elect Bill McIntosh, Brian Cole-Hamilton, Jim Bolton and a last minute substitute Jim's son in law, represented the Club at the Govan Rotary Club's Annual Foundation Quiz. Totally by luck, we reached the quarter final only to be beaten by the eventual winners the Rotary Club of Clydebank.
On Saturday 16th February the Club Vocational Service Committee, through PP Phil Spence, organised, at short notice, a most interesting Vocational visit to the new BBC Headquarters. We were given a most excellent guided tour by Phil's daughter Kay and were most impressed with her knowledge of this new facility.
On Friday 15th February 2008 President Ian, PP Phil Spence and PP Brian Cole-Hamilton visited the Rotary Club of East Kilbride to present a Paul Harris fellowship to their member Iain Wiseman. This was to recognise the invaluable help provided by Wiseman Associates in eradicating the Rot from our Largs Holiday Flat.
This work is now finished and we hope to finalise preparing the flat for deserving guests from the Rutherglen community at the beginning of April.
On 24th January we had an excellent talk from a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Student Josh Blades from the USA.
As usual with these visitors his presentation was outstanding and a great reflection on the standard of Foundation Students.
BURNS SUPPER. FRIDAY 18 JANUARY 2008
Our photographer in chief Vice President Andy Cattanach took a series of pictures of the event.
These can be seen either by clicking here or copying the link below into your browser.
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/afcattanach/2007BurnsSupper?authkey=4ceM_Dd7o7c
If you remember some time
ago a Fiona Marra spoke to the Club of her dream of opening a school in Ghana to
provide care and education for young people there. We gave her a donation and a
number of us participated in a Waverly cruise down the Clyde in aid of her "Let
Us Shine Africa" project. (See below for a report on that.)
Well the school has now opened and below are some photographs of the event.
It is rewarding to learn that our donations are having a positive effect and Fiona is coming back to the Club on 29th May to tell us more about the success of the project.
Wheel Chair Foundation.
On Thursday 20th September we had a welcomed visitation from Assistant District Governor Ian Grant who
presented us with the certificate shown below, recording our contribution to the Wheel Chair Foundation.
Donald MacLeod.
On Thursday 13th September 2007 President Ian had the delightful task of inducting Donald MacLeod
into membership of our Club.
Bill Dickson
Sadly we have to report the death of our member Billy Dickson on Sunday 9th September 2007.
Billy Joined the Club on 15th September 1977 almost exactly 30 years ago.
Since then he has been a dedicated Rotarian serving as our President 1999 to 2000
He was born in Yorkshire on 27th September 1928 almost 79 years ago and although having lived his life
mostly in his adopted home of Scotland he never forgot his Yorkshire roots
and his interest in the English sport of cricket .
A busy and successful business man his cheery and straight forward manner will be sorely missed.
Munn Cup Bowling.
On Tuesday 14th August 2007 we held
our usual annual Bowling Competition for the Munn Cup.
This most enjoyable evening of fellowship and fun resulted in a win for Skip
President Ian Wilson. John Lloyd and Colin Stanfield.
(Presidential privilege is one thing but I am sure that we should have
introduced a more rigorous handicapping system.)
To help a recent speaker to our Club, Fiona Marra's project "Let Us Shine Africa" we gave a Club donation to her charity fund and 20 of our members and friends supported a fun and fund raising sail "Doon the Watter" on the Paddle Steamer Waverly on Friday 20/07/2007.
(More information about this project can be found by clicking on the link in our "Charities we Support" page.)
